Cal Wisniewski and Nathan Vaughan will compete together at state this coming Saturday in the long jump and two relays and look forward to remaining teammates next year at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Winding down a standout senior track and field season, Cal Wisniewski is too smart to want to escape Nathan Vaughan’s shadow. He knows the best way to get faster is to try to catch someone faster than you. Same for jumping and hurdling.
If Wisniewski wanted to leave competing with and against Vaughan so that he could improve his chances of finishing first instead of second, he would have chosen a different place to go to college.
Nope. Vaughan committed to University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh first, and when Wisniewski reached the same destination, just a little later than Vaughan.
A competitive fisherman, Vaughan said that the big fishing scene in Oshkosh accounted for about “50%” of his college choice.
Wisniewski is not a fisherman. Yet.
“I’m trying to learn,” he said. “Nate said he could teach me because that’s all you have to do up there is fish and run.”
Wisniewski said that school doesn’t get underway until late September, “so, we’ll have a lot of time to train and learn how to fish first.”
Based on how quickly Wisniewski learned the art of long jumping this season it shouldn’t take long for him to figure out how to entice the fish to bite on his bait.
At last Thursday’s Valparaiso regional, Wisniewski qualified for four events at the state meet, starting with a long jump of 22-4.5 and was timed in 10.94 in the 100 meters to beat the state standard in both events.
Vaughan holds the school record in the long jump (24-2) and the 100 meters (10.55), but hasn’t run the latter in the postseason.
But Wisniewski doesn’t always finish behind Vaughan. At the Porter Last Chance Qualifier, an indoor meet on March 21, Wisniewski had the best time in the 60 meters (6.93), Vaughan the second-best (6.94).
“They saw that I ran faster than Nate in a 60 meter and that’s when they first called me up,” Wisniewski said. “I think Nate told them about me.”
Without having a realistic shot of scoring points for the team in the 100, Wisniewski scratched from the fleet state field.
He also runs in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays and worked his way into the school record books in both events.
Wisniewski has carried a heavy load all year, holding up physically for at least most of the season.
“I kind of struggled with some shin splints in the middle of the year, but I’ve been feeling pretty good lately,” he said.
Like Vaughan, Wisniewski is an extremely versatile athlete, having posted fast times in the 100, 200, 400, 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles during his career and making it to state in the long jump despite making his meet debut in the event on March 21. He didn’t hurdle much as a senior and not at all in the postseason.
Chesterton is entered in all three relays at Saturday’s state meet at North Central High in Indianapolis.
The 4x100 relay of Weston Moore, Louis Raffin, Wisniewski and Vaughan is seeded third with a 41.19 regional time, a school record, behind Brownsburg (40.89) and Westfield (40.93).
“I think with a push from the competition we can definitely get faster,” Wisniewski said.
The 4x400 (3:18.51) relay run by Vaughan, Wisniewski, Ben Phillips and Raffin is seeded fifth, almost five seconds behind top seed Franklin Central.
Spencer Martin, Will Roberson, Zarek Sierazy and Ray Hundt ran the 4x800 in 8:00.35 to earn the No. 25 seed.
Vaughan has the team’s two highest seeds in individual events. He is No. 1 in the long jump after hitting 23-11.25 in the preliminary round at the regional and skipping the final. Wisniewski (22-4.5) is No. 25.
In the 300 hurdles, Vaughan (38.28) checks in at No. 10, Raffin (39.15) at No. 22.
Vaughan already claimed Chesterton school records in the long jump, meters, 300 hurdles and the two relays. Adding either the state team title or an event state title one to his banner season in the long jump, 300 hurdles or one of the relays would make for the perfect finishing touch on what could go down in history as the greatest boys track and field season any Chesterton athlete has ever put together.